Neville's Fountain
by fuckingbrianaman
Summary: Neville is starting his fifth year at Hogwarts, and just wants a nice, quiet, solitary compartment on the Express. Too bad the only one avalible has this mysterious  yet beautiful  girl seated inside... Neville's first meating with Luna Lovegood.


**Author's Note: Set in the begining of their fifth year, this story shows Neville's first meeting with Luna Lovegood. I own nothing; characters, setting, ect, belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling. This is my first fanfic, please R&R. Oh, and there are several references to the tale of Beedle the Bard, _The Fountain of Fair Fortune_. I suggest reading that, as it helps to understand what Neville is talking about. Thanks!**

Neville's Fountain

He had been looking for a compartment, preferably an empty one; Neville Longbottom wasn't exactly popular, after all. The entire train had been full, except for one compartment, which had held a beautiful, wide-eyed blonde who had caught his attention immediately. She was reading an upside-down magazine and was totally absorbed in it and her hair seemed to have just dried without being combed properly; it was wavy and slightly tangled in a way that most girls would balk at. Her wand was behind her ear, as Neville had seen some muggles do with their writing utensils and – although beautiful – she looked slightly dotty and very intimidating. Most girls were intimidating to him though, so he tried to put her from his mind.

His heavy trunk dragging behind him and Trevor clutched in his hand, he tried to keep walking but was stopped by Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. Happy to see someone who he could call a friend, he quickly panted, "Hi, Harry. Hi, Ginny… Everywhere's full… I can't find a seat…" He knew he was lying, but didn't know why. He would love to meet the beautiful girl in the compartment behind him, but he was terribly bad at first impressions. His escapade with the Sorting Hat in his first year flashed through his mind, and he felt the strong desire to change time.

Ginny slipped past him and looked into the odd girl's compartment. "What are you talking about?" she said. "There's room in this one, there's only Loony Lovegood in here –"

"Didn't want to disturb her… figured she wanted to be alone…" he muttered, embarrassed at being caught in his lie.

Ginny laughed. "Don't be silly, she's alright." She opened the door and lugged her trunk through; Harry and Neville did the same, although rather reluctantly. Neville noticed that Ron Weasely and Hermione Granger were nowhere to be seen and wondered if they and Harry had had a falling out; the three were inseparable. Or perhaps he and Ginny were now a couple. While Neville doubted this, it was a strong possibility. He wasn't stupid; he could tell that Ginny had a rather large crush on Harry. He remembered the Yule Ball, and how the entire night Ginny had thrown secretive, almost inconspicuous looks towards Harry and his partner, Parvati Patil. Neville hadn't minded – he was thrilled to have a date at all.

Presently, he heard Ginny greeting the blonde girl, "Hi, Luna. Is it okay if we take these seats?"

The girl, whose name was apparently Luna, looked up and Neville saw she was wearing a necklace made of butterbeer caps. She looked at him for a moment and he had to suppress a pleasant shudder, as her wide, pale eyes cut into his. She looked away quickly, without a trace of emotion on her face, and her gaze halted at Harry and she nodded. Neville felt a pang of jealousy, but ignored it. Who wouldn't want to share a compartment with the famous Harry Potter?

"Thanks," Ginny said, flashing Luna a smile.

The boys hefted the three trunks and Harry's owl's cage onto the luggage rack and sat down, Harry across from Luna and Neville across from Ginny, who had taken the seat by Luna's. The blonde's eyes had locked onto Harry, who looked wholly uncomfortable. For a few minutes an awkward silence ensued, but was broken by Ginny.

"Had a good summer, Luna?"

"Yes… Yes it was quite enjoyable, you know," she responded. Luna's voice had a dreamy air and her gaze never shifted from Harry. "_You're _Harry Potter."

Harry said, "I know I am." Neville chuckled and relaxed a little bit, but he had caught Luna's attention, and she swung her stare around to him.

"And I don't know who you are."

Neville blushed at being addressed directly and hastened to reply, "I'm nobody."

Ginny, always the sweetheart, corrected him sharply. "No you're not. Neville Longbottom – Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw.

This explained why Neville had never seen her before, but also threw him off, as he had assumed that she was his age, if not older.

"_Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure,_" she quoted in a singsong voice, before disappearing behind her magazine again. Neville and Harry exchanged incredulous looks and Ginny fought off a giggle. This girl was oddly captivating and Neville found himself looking at her often, trying to think of a way to engage her in conversation, but the train rumbled on, and for a long time nothing came to him. Finally, he turned his attention to Harry.

"Guess what I got for my birthday?" said Neville, hardly holding back the burst of excitement that hit him.

"Another Remembebrall?" said Harry, and Neville was thrown back into his first year for the second time that day as he remembered the marblelike gift his grandmother had sent him in hopes of helping his horrid memory.

"No," he said, tasting the irony, "I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago… No, look at this…"

He thrust his free hand (one was still holding his toad, Trevor) into his schoolbag and pulled out a small gray cactus-looking plant covered in boils. "_Mimbulus mimbletonia,_" he proclaimed proudly, positively beaming. "It's really rare. I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My great-uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I'm going to see if I can breed from it."

"Does it – er – do anything?" Harry asked. Neville could tell that he was shocked by the pulsating plant, and his friend's expression of confusion mixed with revulsion bothered him very little.

"Loads of stuff! It's got an amazing defensive mechanism – hold Trevor for me…" Neville dug around in his bag for a moment and produced a quill. Luna appeared from behind her magazine and Neville was struck with how totally stupid what he was about to do was. He had never tried it before, and it would probably be very messy, but he was too excited to stop, and he had finally managed to catch Luna's attention. He poked the plant with the writing end of his quill.

Thick, dark green jets of liquid that smelled an awful lot like old manure shot out of every boil on the plant, and Neville was reminded wildly of the children's story, _The Fountain of Fair Fortune_, when the knight had bathed in the fountain in the setting rays of the sun. He shook of the thought, and assessed the damage is stupidity had caused. Ginny's arms and hair were covered with Stinksap, and Harry managed to get a face full of it. But worst of all, it had gotten all over Luna's magazine. Ignoring how totally caked in the gunk he was, Neville was mentally punching himself for being so reckless. _So much for first impressions_, he thought glumly.

"S-sorry… I haven't tried that before… Didn't realize it would be quite so…" Neville saw Harry cough out a mouth full of the foul stuff. "Don't worry, though, Stinksap's not poisonous."

The compartment door opened and Neville heard a quick conversation between Harry and whoever had been at the door, but he was too embarrassed to pay proper attention. He was picturing Luna running from the train in disgust whenever it stopped, and his insides were squirming unpleasantly. Luna, though, didn't seem to even notice that she was covered in the awful slime, and she was looking at the visitor with mild interest.

The door shut again and Harry groaned.

"Never mind," said Ginny. "Look, we can get rid of all this easily. _Scourgify_." The Stinksap vanished, and Neville felt a rush of gratitude for her. Luna disappeared behind her magazine – which he noticed was called _The Quibbler_ – once again.

"Sorry," Neville said to her. She showed no sign of hearing him.

* * *

In the time it took for the train to arrive at Hogwarts, Neville became steadily more and more preoccupied with thoughts of Luna Lovegood. Most of the rest of the trip he spent staring at her, trying to figure her out. He was dragged back to the present a few times, but always by her.

Ron and Hermione finally showed up and Neville managed to conclude that they were prefects. He was struck with an odd feeling when Ron made Luna roll around with laughter, and desperately wished he were funny.

Hermione made a rude comment about _The Quibbler_, and Neville watched, fascinated, as Luna's calm, dreamy demeanor turned icy in a second.

"Excuse me. My father's the editor." The sharpness of her tone made him want to slap Hermione for offending Luna, and he simultaneously had the urge to assure the blonde that he loved the magazine and thought it to be wonderfully written, when in all honesty, he had never read it before. He held his tongue.

When they got close to the school, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Harry, and Neville all put on their robes. Neville offered to put Luna's trunk back on the luggage rack for her, but blushed furiously when she looked at him. She considered his request for a minute and nodded. He felt extremely self conscious as he hefted the large trunk over his head and tried to not fall backwards. Dusting off his hands, he turned back to her and expected to see her same, emotionless mask staring back at him, but was shocked to see a small smile playing at her lips.

Neville's heart skipped.

The train eventually stopped, and the large group piled out and onto the platform, each person helping someone else in some way. Neville noticed that Luna was holding Harry's owl's cage, and almost felt the same pang of jealousy, but remembered her smile, the smile only he had gotten, and shrugged it off.

Neville Longbottom thought Luna Lovegood's smile was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen, and as he made his way to the carriages, he was reminded again of Sir Luckless, who had bathed in the Fountain of Fair Fortune and had come out to find the love of his life – the witch, Amata – standing right before him.


End file.
